Inside the Institute

Make Your Own Ice Cream

For this post, right before the July 4th holiday weekend, I asked our summer intern Brooke Mazurk, who will be a junior next year at Barnard College, to try out and write about her experience with one of my favorite warm weather tools, the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker attachment. Here’s what she had to say:

Every year, even before summer officially begins, a warm, sunny, spring day comes along and everyone seems to be outside with an ice cream cone in-hand. The beautiful weather seems to serve as an invitation to indulge in a cold treat. For me, every season is ice-cream worthy. Whether I raid the freezer or stop in at a local shop, I treat myself to an ice cream cone almost every day of the year.

So when Sharon asked me to give the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment a whirl, I was thrilled that I would be able to make ice cream on my own terms. For my first attempt, I tried a simple and classic flavor that my Mom and Dad always kept in the house during the summertime: mint chocolate chip. Following the step-by-step instructions from a recipe book, I prepared a mixture of cream, milk, eggs, sugar, peppermint, and a few drops of green food coloring (wouldn’t be mint chocolate chip without it!), and let it cool in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, I assembled a KitchenAid mixer in the Lab with the Ice Cream Attachment. After pouring the chilled base into the already-churning machine, I noticed it almost immediately began its metamorphosis into ice cream. And after just five minutes, the mixer began making a loud clicking noise to signal that the ice cream was ready. Sure enough, what I had in front of me was a batch of the richest and creamiest mint chocolate chip I’d ever seen. Exercising supreme self-control (well, I did lick the churner), I followed directions and “cured” the ice cream in the freezer for a few hours before eating. Let me tell you, mint-chocolate chip never tasted so good!

The Ice Cream Maker Attachment ($99) can be used with all model KitchenAid mixers. Basically it consists of a mixing bowl with a gel inside that helps it stay cold after you chill it in the freezer and a churner that you attach to the mixer instead of the beaters. What's most important to know is that the bowl must be placed in the freezer at least fifteen hours before you decide to make ice cream and the longer the bowl is frozen, the faster your ice cream will be ready. The owner’s manual visually and textually guided me through the easy process of converting the mixer into an ice cream maker and even included tips for making the perfect ice cream.

If you don’t have a mixer or an ice cream maker, you can still make your own homemade ice cream. Click here for lots of delicious no-machine-needed recipes from our test kitchen.

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